Thursday, 17 January 2008

After slowly picking out songs here and there, I've noticed the tracks I chose for this post are all a bit similar. Well, Trent beat me to posting the Mathematikal mix, but the other two are also grinding banger-ish types with plenty of grit, just as I thought I may be steering away from that sort of stuff a bit. Surprising, but pleasantly surprising. I'll kick it off with the Para One remix of My Head, which I wasn't aware of until i found it on the other side of my Lava Lava 12". Killer, tight rhythms! Punching bass! High intensity effects! From past experience, you know anything touched by both Boys Noize and Para One has to be gold.

Was kindly sent this fine tune from Belgian duo Mascotte, who make some really nice groovy-yet-sinister sounds. This is perhaps not as dark as some of their other songs, but it's a good introdudtion to their vibe. Plenty of pleasing noise. I'm looking forward to hearing them make music in 08, I have faith they'll stay on top of things.

A couple of old tunes, again from inthemix.06 (get it! get it! GET IT!), both amazing and quite different takes by Mike Monday on Whirlpool Productions' 'anthem' if you want to call it that. The first is swelling melodic disco that layers and builds gently into deep, uplifting, warm funk. The dub takes a totally different angle, with jagged beats and stabbing synths. It's a far more aggressive and deformed wrap of the song, but works just as well. Together the two tracks compliment each other just dandy, and I love how they're used on the album to blatantly indicate the direction the disc has taken.

Tuesday, 15 January 2008

I'm really impressed with the new Fischerpooner track. It's quite similar to their old stuff, and I think that's what I like about it. Dragging bass and almost poppy synth lines complimented by the completely recognisable vocals of Casey Spooner. To be released on the Kistuné Maison 5 Golden Edition on the 4th of February.

I've been trying to get my hands on this track for a while and thankfully it got sent to us the other day. Mathematikal has been featured on this blog for some of his remixes before, and not without reason. His remixes have a certain standard of production which is sometimes hard to come by! I feel this remix is a definite improvement on the original Harris Robotis track, Go. It's way more 'party' than the original and seems to keep it together a bit more. Check it out!

A pretty old track from 2005, which was recently rehashed by Neil. The self titled track by Speedcats has such an awesome build up to a deserving break down. The distorted guitar lead and grinding bass make it a unique and epic track.

Wednesday, 9 January 2008

There's a very good chance, if you read this blog and you live in Sydney, that you frequent Starfuckers on a Saturday night at Club 77. At very least you've heard of it - if you haven't, I would expect you haven't been outside in a very very long time. For the rest of you cats around the world, you may have noticed the infamous club night picking up a slot in Bigstereo's Readers' Poll 2007 as one of the top 9 parties of 2007. And it deserves its place there.

Neon Nights, the first mix by the Starfuckers DJs, is a near perfect representation of what the night is about. Music that spans cutting edge electro, ultra-pop Madonna-and-friends classics, and anything inbetween (seriously); a diverse yet harmonious crowd of flamboyant, curiously dressed, gay, weird, non-pretentious, music loving, excellent kids; and a filthy underground rave atmosphere that can't be replicated anywhere else. The mix itself is as all over the place as you would expect a night there would be. Big club tunes like Exceeder and the D.I.M. remix of Road to Recovery bizarrely collide with I'm Too Sexy and Whitney Houston. And it's great! But like the night itself, words can only go so far to describe. So... check it out! Tracklisting is here.

How about another ace K.I.M track? One of his first productions on his own, and his first 12" release, System Breakdown is still a favourite of mine. I don't think it got as much attention as it should have - it was a bit overshadowed by Wet 'n' Wild, the B-side on the original record which has since become a single itself. It's a quirkily computerised, bouncy tune which wouldn't go astray in an earlier set. Cool stuff. Unfortunately this vinyl rip isn't the best, sorry.

Still on the theme of favourites, here's a magnificent, delicately worked track by Justin Martin. It's always been my #1 song on inthemix.06, which I highly recommend to anybody who listens to electronic music. I'm surprised Justin isn't a bigger name in his field of techy funky sort of house. Enjoy this wonderful melodic song and take note of the name in case you come across his music some time.

And some freshness for good measure: here's a nice hard original from a couple of Sydney new kids on the block, Calling in Sick. I think the pair are showing some real potential, having only been producing since mid December. The keys in this song fondly remind me a lot of ZZZ's track Lion, so straight away I'm enjoying it. Keep an eye on them, I think the next few months should see them develop into pretty cluey music makers. Looks like I was beaten to it by the always excellent Hyperbole and Have Fun Club, but I can deal with that.

Friday, 4 January 2008

Just a few tracks i'm really really in love with at the moment. Some are old, some are new, but all are amazing.

Recently discovered this track on the new Soulwax remix album, which i'm sure you've heard about. Apparently it was an old rave song before Soulwax remixed it? Sure sounds like it could have been, anyway. The vocals/lyrics are hair-raising as is the plodding bass which only gets more amazing as the track moves on. Check it out and play it.

Thursday, 3 January 2008

I rarely get tracks sent to me that I would consider playing out but these two definitely make the cut and boy, are they great.

Really really into this track by We Are Terrorists who have got a little bit of attention, but no where near as much as they deserve. It's what I like to call epic dirty electro. And you can't tell me it's not. The triumphant progression of this track really interests me. It's not too intense (by French standards) and it although quite dark there is also a playful undertone.

Again, another impressive remix by Soma Soundsystem. It is quite a heavy track, but it has been broken up by some nice house sounding vocals. If you haven't heard their Lion - ZZZ remix check it out in my previous post.

Happy new year all! Hope you're enjoying the staggering hangover and worrying memory loss as I am. Har har. Cutting to the chase, I've heard very little in the last few months that's excited me and have spent a lot of time listening to older stuff. Above fresh and exclusive tracks, my highest priority for DD is posting tracks I consider to be quality tunes, so that's going to be the focus with whatever I can find to post. I'm both concerned and intrigued about where dance music is headed in 2008, though I'm sure things will pick up again soon one way or another.

OK, I am totally in love with the SebastiAn mix Trent posted the other week. Totally. Just to show that I mean business with this whole not being concerned with exclusives thing, here are a couple of quite old SebastiAn remixes, perhaps not as well known as some of his other stuff, which still really float my boat. Both are quite dark and dirty - I love the haunting strings and piano in the Mylo remix, shrouded with a layer of grimy distorted fuzz, and the overly butchered vocals in Walking Machine. Both are vinyl rips, I hope you don't mind.

Admittedly I'm really enjoying the remixes of My People, in particular the D.I.M. mix. He seems to be one producer who has consistently pushed out quality tracks for quite a while now, and this is no exception. Certainly the most club-friendly of the three remixes on the 12", it builds nicely into a mean rhythmic banger. And I guess it can't hurt to throw in an old groovy B-side and a repost of the super fun Hung Up / Down Down Down mash.

To take a momentary breather from glitchy electro, here are a couple of classic housey tunes which I've always had a soft spot for. Check out the very danceable Eric Prydz remix of A Bit Patchy and the uplifting and dazzling Axwell mix of 2 Million Ways. Both tracks I feel are quite well put together and have a really funky summery vibe. Just a bit of fun..